islamic militants threaten to carry out more terror attacks in retaliation for the french campaign in mali accusing terrorists of a crusade. the german coalition government crowns an important task months ahead of the national parliamentary vote. merkel's christian democrats lose ground to the social democrats opposition in regional elections. and as israel prepares for its own part of the entry poll on tuesday we report on why many in the country are growing increasingly frustrated with the policies of the party that's set to win the vote.

live from moscow you're watching r t with me and he said now why our top story this hour the islamic terror cell allegedly responsible for the deadly siege in algeria says france is carrying out a crusader campaign in the region almost sixty hostages were killed after militants captured a remote gas plant in retaliation for the ongoing intervention in neighboring mali but the islamists claim they wanted to negotiate the release of their captives but the offer was turned down with the algerian military deciding to storm the facility causing a bloodbath more terror attacks have now been promised unless france ends its campaign in west africa some of the hostage takers were militants from libya or paris helped islamist topple the late colonel gadhafi who had warned of an impending al qaeda surge in the region artie's probably boycott has more. of

a very. you wanted peace you wanted freedom you wanted economic progress france great britain will always stand by the libyan people. but a regional crisis probably wasn't what mr sarkozy anticipated when he was spearheading the military operation to topple moammar gadhafi although the former french president can't say that he hadn't been warned personally i play a significant role in establishing peace in those regions of africa should the situation in libya be unstable al-qaeda will establish its rule a lot and will return and libya will be another afghanistan the terrorists will flood to europe cut to paris and almost two years later markets after his words could well be ringing in the years of need what i saw was the successor francois hollande having just sent troops to mali france's new leader could well be learning

that every action has a reaction. secu so not only did the french intervention in libya not help the democrat disease process which is what they said they were after but it is a fact of it opened up the floodgates for weapons stockpiles and sliders to leave the country and go solve a lot of this is a more to mali where the recently deployed french military were reportedly stunned by the technologically advanced weapons that are in the hands of their adversaries nobody seems to think that perhaps organized groups come from somewhere other than mali it seems they came across the nearby libyan border libya is as i say central to all this problem because all the a lot of weapons have been produced by the collapse of the darfur region but also by the complete failure to establish any kind of real state you have essentially all the operating in different parts of libya and you have across much of this hour a situation where people have arguments for vengeance of a sense so bribery and corruption order grabs is common place gadhafi was bitter

opponent all right it was ahmed groups whatever his faults and they now have the ability to use the chaos in libya to provide a basis the first effects where immediate a hostage crisis in algeria said to be in retaliation for the french offensive in mali has already claimed the lives of dozens of civilians taken captive and i'm frightened of terrorism this is always been a problem for france whether it's iraq or sarkozy this is just a i'm french i was born here and lived here my culture is french but my origins are there and i was there like another country telling me what to do if you were scared of anything that threatens us. france's global allies are showing signs of being sucked into the mali conflict british prime minister david cameron has already acknowledged that battling radical insurgency in the region could take decades rather than months and all this so that france can remedy the knock on effects from

its libyan intervention. r t paris. but earlier i spoke with former u.k. ambassador to algeria graham hand who says the killing of several british hostages isn't enough to dissuade london from helping the french intervention. the united kingdom will continue to support the french intervention i imagine that the british government will also want to support our friends in algeria in any way that they might ask us to. david cameron has said that the fight against islamic terrorists in north africa could take decades can britain really afford to get involved like they did in afghanistan which i should mention of course started out with george bush saying that we would be in and out. well politicians tend always to say we'll be in and then we'll be seeing mr cameron knows that this will take time i don't

imagine that he is thinking of committing british ground troops to north africa but there's a lot we can do in terms of intelligence technology logistics i think it does have to be done the question really is how can we afford not to. there was the thought that france went in because of possible uranium resources there what is britain's interests than. well i think britain's interest is in having stability on the if you like the southern florida flank of nato just across the mediterranean from from western europe. i don't accept these conspiracy theories about minerals i think it's really about knowing that where we have we have stable neighbors stable neighbors but at the same time britain openly backs rebels who are known to have sort of attachments to al qaeda and other is islamist groups there so where then is

the consistency. sort of what rebel groups of those in syria. yes yes well if i say reading anything that is more of a geo political in terms of security and not resources so where then why yes in syria no in algeria and mali well i think it's a different story this is not. an al-qaeda linked islam a stop arising in syria it's all the repeal who want a different life they want to be rid of a tyrant. outside in charge of them and this will solve itself apparently without any intervention from the outside i think the story in mali is completely different this is foreign intervention by the al-qaeda linked terrorists themselves this is not honest mali i'm striving to change the government of

political analyst john walker lindh says western countries support is the most when it's in their geopolitical interests to do so. i greatly enjoyed the ambassador's. discomfiture when you put him that question i mean he doesn't have an answer and the western governments do not have an answer to the question of it which is to say why do we support islamic or islamist rebels in syria and yet send troops into crushes in the midst rebels in mali there is no way of squaring the circle these are simply double standards for the by the same token why do we support last year the secession of south sudan but we suddenly send in troops to prevent the succession of north mali these are political decision we are taking political decisions on the basis of our political vision and our friends and enemies and that's the reason why we do one thing in syria and the other thing in mali and as for encouraging stability i mean that really does take the cookie to say that you

know we have practically the whole of the middle east including north africa in turmoil we have supported we the west have supported the great uprisings of the arab spring only to find that they the regimes they have produced have an important islamic element. and of course all this comes against the background as you know of the repression in algeria which has been going on for fifteen or twenty years we all remember that the early ninety's the islamists there won the election and the situation was averted only by having a millet tree or effectively military rule in algeria these are conundrums which the west has not solved than is not solving it is on the contrary making matters worse. german chancellor angela merkel's coalition has suffered a blow ahead of the parliamentary election later this year they've been defeated in a key regional vote losing by one seat in the lower saxony well the disappointing

result potentially puts merkel in a vulnerable position ahead of september's general election in which she seeks to win a third term in office argues peter all over reports now on the fragile support for the german leader both at home and abroad. it's the thirteenth setback in local elections that angle merkel's christian democrat party and their coalition partners the free democrats have suffered it's also more importantly the fifth the fifth state government which they've lost to the social democrats since two thousand and nine this vote in lower saxony which is the fourth most populous state in germany it seemed very much as a bellwether of opinion and it was incredibly tight well it was by one seat and what it does mean though even by the smallest of margins the social democrats well they smell blood heading into the general election their candidate for the chancellorship steinbrück said that well this shows that

a change of government power is possible this year what's interesting when you look at this particular particular local election is the eurozone debt crisis really didn't come into it this was a local election where people were voting on local issues now it's in that area where mrs merkel is starting to show some weaknesses as it were and her christian democratic party and their coalition partners but she still has this personal appeal as the leader because of what she's done for the eurozone crisis but of course that isn't mirrored when you look around the rest of europe particularly in countries like greece where we've seen her burnt in effigy and even compared to adult hitler because the greek people they see angela merkel as the main person behind the austerity that they're having to live through so her popularity abroad personally isn't particularly great when it comes to the eurozone crisis however germans are happy with the way that she's managed this crisis and managed germany's

economy throughout it but as i say it's going to come down to whether she can convince the german people that she's the right person to manage german interests at home as well as those abroad whether she can win not third term towards the end of this year. now across the atlantic another leader is getting ready to set out his second term stall with barack obama that delivers a speech on the next four years of his presidency look at whether he can live up to his promises. us hungry up for profits why investment bankers are being blamed for forcing up food prices for everyone else the details coming up after this.

choose your language killing weaker though in the federal subsidies still some other. treatments to get consensus here to. choose the opinions that immigrate to. choose the stories could impact the. troops be sent off to. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't i'm sorry we're going to the big picture.

here with r t live from moscow well with the general election looming in israel polls predict they'll be little changes to the makeup of the country as part of the meant for casper are promising the return of prime minister benjamin netanyahu is right wing the coup party and are leaving many voters apathetic and disillusioned artist paul the slayer has more. the countdown has begun but instead of scanning the papers to brush up on who's saying watch in the final hours before his way he's head to the polls. is searching for an apartment the twenty eight year old is desperate to move out of his parents' home but times are tough and he blames the government but i'm not going to vote i see who are the candidates and there is no one standing who represents me or who can change the general mood in the country with the recent political justing that's all candidates move from one party to

another in joost even more pessimism in people like musharraf who have lost trust in his radio politician is the union between bibi netanyahu and his foreign minister avigdor lieberman in to beat him in government the return of leave me for my opposition leader back into the fray just a few months off to announcing her time and only frustrated and already eviction where we public many israelis don't believe that the present politicians of the parties. have any really new solutions to the big problems facing israel security spirit economic issues. but among all the uncertainty one thing is certain for the disenchanted voters and it can work and i also feel like the outcome is pre-determined everyone knows not and you know who is going to win for them or the apathy based on the belief that netanyahu will almost certainly when has led experts to worry about the state of his way to democracy. there are some populations designing these really society if you take the settlers or the truth

dogs the presenters that turns out to vote is very high it's above eighty on the other hand when you look at the middle class the youth and the arabs the percentage is around sixty. and those figures only help netanyahu and his allies of course there are parties who are ready to oppose the government's policies one of their merits boasts that a vote for them is a secure vote against netanyahu and a leadership that will destroy israel first of all are is a lation the war will continue. there will be no worse for lucian to the palestinian problem and the economic and social gaps between rich and poor who will get to march why they're in deeper such merits is expected to win only around five percent of the votes in a recalled field of fifty four parties that are running in these elections netanyahu is party is expected to get only about a quarter of the seats in the parliament but with other political forces being

shattered into rival factions this is still going to be enough for him to continue in power the coalition effort on yahoo is expected to build would have a very slim majority but it would still give him the mandate he needs to map out this country's next four years but the paradox of this election is that the candidate say to when is not particularly liked by most of the country policy r.t. tel aviv. will be watching closely the israeli elections all day tuesday bringing you thorough coverage as well as in-depth exploration of the issue of israel settlements with a little bit of a twist. i'm here with some investors from england ok i'm here to share a new bio morsel by poverty in this area and in north georgia but. not here no exception ok same distinct solution to carry on with the problem was that you're so beautiful all of us in our. own car.

good times and goldman sachs staff of the investment giant are reported to be getting a significant thousand reboost but a lot of that money has been made on the back of surging food prices which are leaving many around the world starving earlier i spoke to our alexei or says he has been looking in to this very issue. this debate has been going on years now but this latest controversy is definitely making this discussion even more fueled now the employees of goldman sachs investment bank are in for some happy times their salaries have reportedly been raised and almost half a million dollars worth of annual bonuses are to be paid out all because in twenty two of the company made about four hundred million dollars from investing its clients' money in a range of products known as soft commodities such as read and maize to coffee and sugar but what's good for bankers is damaging the global food situation say experts and many claim major investment players are contributing to

a global food emergency the united nations has warned that the world could be on the brink of a major hunger crisis this year after poor harvests in the united states and ukraine food prices already surged last summer with cereals hitting a record high in september last year food cost sixteen percent higher than in twenty ten and more than twice as expensive as a decade ago even after adjusting for inflation with almost a billion people already starving such a forecast could make things catastrophic worse and the latest controversy with goldman sachs has once again we ignited the debate on what actually stands behind the hike in food prices organizations like food watch say they are not the only ones financial players around the world to bear a large part of blame by investing astronomical sums of money into foodstuffs and speculating on the prices to make big profits in the last three years alone speculators have poured in as an extra hundred billion u.s. dollars into the sector and that is expected of driving prices even higher investment and central banks deny this saying futures trading is important for

farmers and their bets have no effect yet the prices. bears scant resemblance to the natural growth in demand for food moreover they're already creating grounds for instability sparking protests and demonstrations for instance in several african countries including faso and senegal bakers went on strike recently because of an eighty percent increase in the price of wheat so if this trend continues people will be unable to afford basic staple foods and if further harvest suffer too it's not hard to imagine the consequences for the world's hungry barack obama is officially at the helm of the u.s. government for another four years after being sworn in at the white house all eyes will be on the american president later on monday when he outlines his second term plans in his inaugural speech obama's first four years so he wasn't by failing to keep some of his pledges and to can questions if it's a trend that's here to stay. it's generally thought that his second term six u.s.

presidents free on walks those handcuffs that kept them from doing great things in their first term because they had to think about getting reelected all the time in the last four years we've heard many times president obama's hands are tied on this issue word that issue suppose this election has on tied his hands we don't have a crystal ball to tell you what he's going to do with those free presidential hands but we may already see signs of what is to come president obama steps into his second term carrying a heavy load of promises along with the pledge comes the threat of another devastating war in the middle east for four years president obama pushed to a great extent by israel as war with iran i will take no options off the tape and what i see. some believe the appointment of chuck hagel as defense secretary who is known to have been against a strike on iran may be a sign that the new obama administration will be less warmongering towards the word

but two of the country's leading middle east experts orange convinced vision i would bet a certain amount of money we will hear the words all options are on the table come out of his come out of his mouth in addition to the point that we have the appointment of john brennan at the cia who i think is someone who the israelis are just fine with who will continue many of the covert programs of course or drone program but many of the covert programs that would be under his under his authority at the cia that will be very much to israel's liking that will serve to undermine any attempts or any possibilities for. coming to terms of the islamic republic of iran john brennan has been in charge of president obama's targeted assassinations program is a point of push the notorious war on terror in a different perspective and shows that it's far from over they want wars that will not redound against them at home politically so they don't want any more body bags they don't want more american troops. to the extent they want to prevent that they

want to have all the soldiers sitting in alexandria virginia or los angeles or whatever and running the brony that are killing people whether it's afghanistan or yemen or iran or you know were else however over the next four years the administration's reach will extend far beyond the middle east as it is said to continue its pivot to asia as well as building a missile shield provocatively close to russia's borders last year in a hot mike moment president obama told russia's made me very if that in his second term he'd be more flexible to discuss moscow close search. but it could turn out to be flexibility to words only rather than action believe russia is still at it we opposed to it still sees it as as a we're just going to go ahead a little while president obama may have more control over foreign policy domestically there is a greater chance of his agenda getting bogged down in congress like gun control and

the executive orders are useless and legislative proposals and i suspect will not pass in this country i don't think it's in the offing and you were in the near future because we are a culture that is very deeply. in love with our guns in the last four years congress more than was attempted to sabotage the president on key economic issues including reaching a last minute deal as the country teetered on the edge of fiscal cliff presidents who have trouble with congress like to do international things because they have to worry about congress much less the president's actions so far have little possibility that in the next four years he will be any more flexible on major foreign policy issues as far as is the mess that could genda many doubt whether he's never ending battle with congress will allow him to move significantly beyond inspiring speeches in washington i'm kind of checking. i look now at more of the

world's news and the trial of five indian men for the brutal rape and murder of a woman last month begins in delhi if convicted they could face the death penalty the six suspects under-age will be tried in a juvenile court in december the twenty three year old female and male friends boarded a bus where they were attacked by six men in an ordeal lasting several hours and the victims were dumped by the side of the road the attacks sparked a nationwide protest over widespread violence against women in india. taliban raid on the kabul traffic police headquarters has left three people three officer police officer i should say and at least five terrorists dead the battle between insurgents and security forces lasted over nine hours is the second raid in the afghan capital in the past week and comes amid attempts by the u.s. and afghan governments to try and engage the taliban in peace talks.

and as well as leader hugo chavez will soon return it to rule his country the vice president nicolas maduro according to the president is recovering well and gaining strength following a severe respiratory infection probably in cancer surgery in cuba the long serving leader has yet to be sworn in for his third term this is an i.q. race and date was postponed indefinitely due to his extensive health problems. now round up of the top stories of the last seven days and sport is heading your way after a break. georgian president mikheil saakashvili is military police have been accused by prosecutors of using a very unusual weapon to control members of the government

a weapon so unusual that history great villains wouldn't even touch it that weapon was almost sexuality the georgian prosecutor's office claims a network of gay spies was set up to seduce certain politicians in order to surveil them and blackmail them the gay spies would tempt men in the government into going back to their apartments which were filled with hidden cameras and microphones to record information and create a not safe for work video to be used to put pressure on these officials this is truly one of the most unique and kind of gross weapons of political intrigue i've ever heard of i mean how many men in georgia politics could possibly fall into the spy trap you know if he actually did implement this scheme and it actually worked than machiavelli and von bismarck could have a thing or two to learn from president saakashvili but that's just my opinion.

hello welcome to the our two sports show with make a partridge and hear other top stories. big battle to get concorde next the winner as defending champions the nominee must fight back to win a three two thriller it's gone and we are in the title race in the west. last europhiles discussed a joint top of their group and kinky thrash monkey on a big week for the russian teams in the top sixteen of the euro beings. and lighting up with just over a year to go to the winter games the olympic torch is on bail which will travel all across russia before reaching the host venue of sochi. but first to the ice where defending champions do not know must go beat skull three two in

a crunch battle in some petersburg to pump life into the title race in the west roberts by the neon reports. this is currently one of the biggest rivalries in the . cup holder is the now more skilled this isn't favorite sky and it was seen face on a man opens in a ball play me that was from the blue line to give the hosts a one milli if the number was quick to level though and it was all down discussed goalie. who steerable blunder and jones and. still regained their lead through the mango and the stem around to the netminder to the other and now must alex on the way you know going. to second period so that we watch the boys again danielle staub on the low that it was that she ought to make you fuel and early in the third to get going go score the winner for you now off retief.